


Monkey pays for Hot Cake

by neveralarch



Category: Xī yóu jì | Journey to the West - Wú Cheng'en
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-25
Updated: 2010-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-14 02:24:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/144308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neveralarch/pseuds/neveralarch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A small piece of the journey.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Monkey pays for Hot Cake

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Doire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doire/gifts).



> Based on the scene at the beginning of Chapter 59.

Now sit down and listen and I'll tell you a story.

When I was a young man, I used to wander the streets selling hot cakes. It was hot, burning hot back in those days, but people were used to it, and they still needed to eat. I guess I could have let the cakes cool down, but that didn't occur to me. The hot cake recipe had been passed down from my ancestors, who had migrated from far in the East, and I had never thought to change it.

Anyway, I was walking along with my cart when I saw a group of travelers talking to the old farmer who used to live in the house down the road. You know, the big red one. Well, it was red back then.

It doesn't matter. Listen, this is the interesting part. Now, there was a Buddhist monk there, a handsome one with a tall stick that he leaned on. He was half-collapsed from the heat, and I could tell he wasn't used to it. And there was a beautiful white horse, with a red mane and clever eyes. And there was an ugly, fat man, with a face like a pig. No, I don't mean with jowls and a double-chin, I mean he looked like a pig. He was holding a rake, and no, I don't know why. And there was another monk, I could tell because of the beads he wore. He was ugly too, with a big red beard. And finally there was the man that the old farmer was talking to. Well, I say a man. I mean, he sort of looked like a man. Mostly he looked like a monkey.

Well, I walked up to them with my cart, and just stood and stared for a while. Well, you would too. They just looked so _strange_. But I couldn't waste time forever, so I got to pushing my cart again, and shouting my wares. They all turned to look at me, but I just kept going, they didn't scare me. And the monkey-man started grinning, and you know what he did? He pulled a hair off of his head and turned it into a coin to buy a cake with.

Of course I sold him a cake. Anyone's money is good with me, even if it is money made out of hair. And I kept that coin until a few years back, when I had to use it to buy tiles for my roof. I didn't tell them it was hair-money, in case they decided not to take it.

Well, the monkey-man took the cake, but it was too hot for him, what with how warm the day already was. Well, I told them it was always hot here, and they couldn't expect me to sympathize. Shouldn't have come here back then, if you didn't like heat. And they asked how I got flour to make cakes, since it was so hot all the time. So I told them that Immortal Iron Fan would cool it off every once in a while, so we could harvest grain and everything.

They got real interested at that, and soon they were off. And I nodded my head at the old farmer, and put the hair-money in my pouch, and got to pushing my cart again.

Now, I hear that the monkey-man went and had a big fight with Immortal Iron Fan, and he took the fan off of her and waved it so many times that he cooled this land off forever and brought the rains back. And I know that it hasn't ever been as hot again as it used to be when I was young, not even in the very middle of the summer. But all I know is that I saw a group of travelers and they bought a cake off of me, like many a set of travelers. You see? Even people out of legends are people, just like you or me.

Well, I guess neither of us has ever paid for our food with hair-money, but that's not the point.


End file.
